1. Field
An air conditioner and a method for controlling the same are disclosed herein.
2. Background
An air conditioner is an apparatus which cools or warms an interior, or purifies indoor air to provide a comfortable indoor environment to a user.
The air conditioner may be classified into an electric heat pump (EHP) type using electric power, and a gas heat pump (GHP) type using a gas fuel such as LPG and LNG according to a power source for driving a compressor. Here, in the GHP type, an engine is operated by burning the gas fuel, and thus the compressor is driven.
An EHP type air conditioner has an advantage that a compressor can be easily controlled through a current control, and thus it is easy to respond to a partial load. A GHP type air conditioner has an advantage that the engine is operated using the gas fuel such as LPG and LNG, and thus it is not affected by a power supply.
Meanwhile, the air conditioner may include an air conditioner in which the EHP type and the GHP type are combined. Such an air conditioner may be referred to as a “combination air conditioner”
However, in the combination air conditioner, since a compressor provided at an EHP device and a compressor provided at a GHP device have different structures from each other, it is difficult to adjust an oil balance in each of the compressors. Also, since the GHP type compressor is a horizontal type lower pressure compressor, there is a disadvantage that an oil storage space is insufficient in the horizontal type lower pressure compressor.